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Hit and sunk

Those of you familiar with the basic urban geography of the City of Toronto, Gardiner Expressway is a major thoroughfare cutting through between the city center core and the Waterfront area. Since Gardiner is pretty much the only highway that leads into the downtown Toronto, it tends to be rather busy. However, I constantly hear that there is this idea going around of demolishing Gardiner altogether, and this has apparently been going around for a long time.

Of all the harebrained ideas out there, this must definitely be the most idiotic one. Fortunately, it is never going to happen. The resulting traffic chaos would be simply unimaginable, when all those cars tried to take the four-lane Lakeshore Boulevard running parallel to Gardiner, or try to enter the city core through the other streets. Moments like that remind me why we don't own a car but take the public transit.

The main argument for demolition seems to be that Gardiner artificially separates the downtown city core from the waterfront areas. Well, since Gardiner is elevated along the whole way that is relevant in here, I am not entirely sure what magic force currently prevents drivers and pedestrians from taking any of the multiple streets that go under the Gardiner and connect the city center to waterfront. Hey, maybe there are scary trolls living under the Gardiner, demanding a toll for everyone who wants to pass. Besides, when we look at pictures such as this one, I wouldn't exactly say that the Gardiner Expressway is the biggest obstacle between the city center to the left, and the Waterfront to the right.

This idea seems to be related to a hippie vision of turning Waterfront into parks for the homeless and other street people to congregate in. Fortunately, the condo boom in that area keeps going strong, so the area is quickly filling with nice-looking new condo skyscrapers. People who want to live in the countryside might indeed find places that are located far away from the city core to be more to their liking.

1 comment

I agree and have always thought that the real problem is Lake Shore Boulevard, not the Gardiner. Eliminate the road beneath the expressway and basically there should be no excuse for not crossing to the waterfront other than the lack of much to do or see down there.

Alternatively they could have buried a section of the Gardiner fairly easily when they first cleared the railway yards that used to lie at the foot of the CN Tower. But instead of doing that they built the SkyDome and convention centre there. Having lived in Boston during the last phase of the Big Dig I have to say that the burial option appeals to me, particularly where (as I have just pointed out) it could have been done on cheap empty land without having to disturb the existing roadway during construction.

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